FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COUNTY COURT PROCEDURE (CMD. 7668)
| Author | Dennis Lloyd |
| Date | 01 July 1949 |
| Published date | 01 July 1949 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1949.tb00132.x |
a34
THE MODERN LAW REVIEW
VOL.
la
countries are concerned.
Sir
Ivor Jennings has recently put
forward a strong plea
'
for
abandoning the term
'
Commonwealth
and Empire
),
which dependent peoples find particularly objection-
nble. He suggests using
'
Commonwealth
'
as the generic term,
and dependent territories
'
where it is necessary to describe the
colonies, trust territories and other dependencies separately.
(2)
When in
1047
the Secretary of State for the Dominions
became the Secretary of State
for
Commonwealth Relations, the
terms
'
Dominion
'
and
'
Dominion status
'
were already passing
out of the semi-official vocabulary
of
the Commonwealth. They
do not appear anywhere in the Declaration, and they will
no
doubt fall gradually into desuetude, to be replaced by a variety
of complicated circumlocutions.
(8)
Although India will no longer owe allegiance, citizens of
India remain (at least
for
the present) British subjects in English
law; and the status of British subjects has always been said
to
carry with it the fundamental duty of allegiance. But the consti-
tutional history
of
the Commonwealth has produced a rich crop of
legal anomalies such as this. The evolution of the Commonwealth
has perhaps been the highest achievement of the British genius
for
politics, and the politicians can say with some justification that this
sphere of politics is
too
serious a matter
to
be left to the lawyers.
s.
A.
DE
SMITH.
FINAL REPORT
OF
THE COMMITTEE
ON
COUNTY COURT PROCEDURE
(CMD.
7668)
THOSE
familiar with the practice of the county courts will not be
surprised at the general opinion expressed by the Committee on
County Court Procedure that in general those who resort to them
are satisfied with their working and that this satisfaction is well
founded. In the course of the century
or
so
in which they have
been functioning those courts have played a vital role and obtained
for themselves a secure place in the administration of justice in this
country. True it is that they have perhaps 16st something in that
period of their character of a poor man's tribunal, but this is
probably due not
so
much to any inherent vice in their constitution
but to the inevitably high cost of litigation under a system which
emphasises the importance of
viva-voce
evidence in court, and also
requires the maintenance
of
the legal profession in two separate
branches. But as with all live institutions there is always room
for
improvement, and the Committee, after a careful and detailed
surrey
of
most of the main aspects
of
the procedure of the county
courts, make a number
of
valuable suggestions in
n
reforming spirit.
Although
the
Committee speak of some major and a large number
The
Ttuies.
May
11,
1!149,
and
Julie
I;,
194Y.
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